I received an email yesterday from a marketer that I now respect very very much, I was impressed before but now this marketer just shines for me. As soon as I saw the headline “One of the hardest emails I have had to write” I knew exactly what it was about.
The email told about how this marketer had just launched a product, he thought it had so much potential but it failed. In fact it only made 11 sales. And now he was writing to his JV partners to apologize. To apologize for the low conversions, to apologize that they had put their trust in him and he had failed them, to apologize that they launch competition had to be scrapped.
I straight away wrote an encouraging email because I knew exactly how he felt. Telling him how much I respected him, telling him I would be honored to promote his next product if it provided value to my list and telling him to keep his chin up. He appreciated it very much.
It’s a fact of life that sometimes marketers/products fail. Seth Godin, Gary Halbert and Paul Kleinmeulman have all had products/ads/promotions that they thought was gonna rock but have produced less than expected results… in fact I remember one ad by Gary Halbert that started with ‘Dear Fatso’ (or something like that) for a weight loss product that didn’t make one sale ;).
Now here is a 4 word phrase to prevent that from ever happening again.
Always ask - Would I Buy This?
This new marketer Chad Curl, didn’t ask this question I believe. His unique product, was way out in left field when he should of hit it over the pitching mound. As I said in my last blog post, I think he priced it too high. And if would have asked “Would I Buy This?” honestly… I doubt he would have paid $77 for this report and software.
Update:- Chad has just informed me that the price for the initial product is only $37 and the OTO was $77 (sorry about that mate)… I believe the price is just right at $37 and if it was my product I would have done just the same. And as he just told me he thought long and hard on price. So I believe that there are a lot more reasons then just price (there always is 
).
Also if he was thinking about those people who want to make money online and asked the question “Would I Buy This?” he would have seen that it was a “luxury” expense, a trinket a toy if you will; and thus very few would buy.
How about what you are selling?
Is it a trinket or a toy or is it a practical blueprint to solve problem X?
Ask this question, “Would I Buy This” before you create the product.
Ask this question, “Would I Buy This” before you price the product.
Ask this question, “Would I Buy This” before you PROMOTE a product. That’s what I did, even though I wanted to help Chad out… I couldn’t because I honestly wouldn’t buy it myself.
And that’s why I didn’t promote a newsletter by a good friend of mine because once again I couldn’t justify the price.
If more marketers would be honest, then they would stop promoting everything that puts a commission in their pocket… and start promoting products that will help other marketers succeed.
That is my goal and I encourage you to do the same.
All the best for your online success.
Sincerely,
Paul Kleinmeulman
Australia